Westvale

IX

IX

By the time they knocked on the door, waiting for Denny to open, Ben's watch indicated that it was three in the afternoon. He opened the door almost instantaneously.

"Finally. That was a while" started Denny. "Alright, so. Listen up. I went to get samples from the lake. I worked on them in the lab and found that apart for the water, an unknown substance was introduced in the lake. I have never seen this in my life and have even searched for it everywhere but cannot find any matches. The substance is highly toxic and as you would expect, carries radioactive properties. It is far from occurring naturally meaning that it was obviously synthesized somewhere. The substance poured from the barrels by those men is most likely what has caused the radiation crisis and is probably what the substance is. They infected Westvale's water supply with this alien thing, for whichever reason and left us to die. Now, all we need to find out in order to answer all our questions is who are they and why?"
"Alright. I've heard enough. It's clear that we need to get out of here as soon as possible" said Clara, looking around the house for that spider Denny had mentioned during the call.

"They're surveilling everything though. Our manpower and resources don't outpower theirs" stated Ben, looking at the two of them, who seemed somewhat distracted. He continued, with hopes of stimulating a discussion that would lead somewhere.

"I think it's safe to say that the barrel men and these forces are connected. They infect the water supply, next thing you know they don't allow people to leave town or allow help in for whatever reason."

Clara completely changed subjects, as if not having listened to what he had said.

"I'm starving. I haven't eaten since morning, I say we all have a meal, rest, and then, I don't know, continue feeling sorry for ourselves. I am sick of all this, I need to keep my mind focused on something else."

"Fine then. We'll eat, then see what happens."

Denny went to sit at the dining table as Ben got a few cans of food out of the bag and Clara set the plates, glasses, and cutlery on the table.

"Looks like we're eating beans and beef jerky" announced Clara, looking at the cans and inside the bags.

"Anything will do" confirmed Denny, opening the cans.

"I got some juice if you don't want water" proposed Clara, getting a large bottle of apple juice out and setting it on the table.

Denny took it and poured some in everyone's glass, then put it back in the middle of the table. As they all got their portion of beef and beans, they started eating, slowly enough, and grabbed some more when they were done with their current serving until the cans were empty. They were done with their lunch break half an hour later, at which point Denny went back on the couch, typing away at his cluster of portable screens. Clara went outside in her garden, while Ben went to the master bedroom, hoping to rest as Denny's morning alarms had barely allowed for not even four hours of rest after having been awake all day and night.

Clara pulled up a deck chair and slowly sat down in it, allowing her body to take the odd shape of the chair. She looked about her garden, contemplating the time when everything made perfect sense in her life, and no soldiers blocked the town's entrances, trying to murder everyone. Her flowers and the beauty of the garden sure did help her relax.

Denny, determined in his government hacking, was trying to break every single element from the mystery as he came across it. Deep into the servers, phones, and computers of the soldiers only several kilometers away from him, something would pop up and help them make some sense of the whole ordeal.

As for Ben, well, he was asleep.

Soon enough it was six in the afternoon, and as Clara and Ben were both sleeping, one outside, one inside, Denny would once again cause them to wake up, indirectly. As if this wasn't already old, a very powerful, striking sound overcame Westvale, immediately waking up Clara in her garden, her eyes slowly adjusting to the brightness although the sky was still gray, not allowing for much light to pass through from the Sun and still looked as if rain was going to start pouring any minute. Her pleasant nap had to be cut short thanks to another one of Denny's mishaps. Ben, traumatized by the sudden sound as his serene afternoon nap finally allowed to forget about the situation that the town and himself were in, stood up, slowly walking to the living room. Clara went to the far end of her glorious garden, looking about in the distance, as to find the source of the sound. Noticing a plume of smoke rising in the distance, she made her way inside the house, with the intention of asking Denny what had just happened, assuming he probably already knew. Ben was already in there, looking sleepy, while Denny looked as if he would never want to see a computer again.